Gauteng Treasury hopes officials can curb the tender rot

The Gauteng Treasury wants to clamp down on tender corruption by using its own officials to clean up the rot at the transport department. The Star recently exposed a R3 billion “illegal” tender at the provincial Department of Roads and Transport, a deal that led to the department’s top manager, Benedicta Monama, being forced to take special leave. Gauteng MEC for Finance Mandla Nkomfe said his officials would also scrutinise each of the companies awarded tenders in the department. He said this was to ensure that the R30bn to improve infrastructure does not go to waste. He said his officials would check whether the tender bidders were on the registry books of the Construction Industry Development Board and whether they have good performance and financial records. Nkomfe pointed out that in the past, some of these companies were awarded tenders despite not having liability insurance funds – guaranteed funds that each successful bidder must have in case the provincial government suffers financial losses.

But his promise is nothing new. Previous administrations have promised tougher action against tender corruption, yet the rot continues in some government departments. Nkomfe’s intervention followed a damning report by the Auditor-General that found gross irregularities in the awarding of tenders in transport, allegedly implicating Monama and junior officials. Monama was placed on leave of absence after she awarded a R3bn tender to WestPoint Trading Enterprise to roll out driving and learner’s testing centres throughout the province against Nkomfe’s directive. Acting head of finance Nomfundo Tshabalala emphasised that they would bring in people with expertise in the evaluation and proper planning of those tenders. Tshabalala, however, maintained that the final allocation of tenders would remain the decision of the Transport Department head. Nkomfe and Tshabalala hinted that the Gauteng government was considering “centralising procurement for infrastructure projects within the departments of finance and infrastructure development”.

“This may be done through the establishment of the provincial infrastructure acquisition council – a centralised government procurement body – which will compromise staff members with the technical know-how. “The team must ensure that only the best service providers are appointed to implement projects, at an acceptable price, so the provincial government can get value from infrastructure investment,” Nkome said. Citing reasons for prompting these changes, Nkomfe said that in the past financial year, the provincial government had spent only 72 percent of its overall infrastructural budget. He said this was due to the lack of project management, poor procurement strategies, late payment of service providers, and disputes with contractual arrangements. When asked about tolling issues, Nkomfe said a final decision on the matter will be made next month.